The Blessed Man Part 4
THE GODLESS MAN (1:4-6)
This is the person who leaves God out of his life. The “ungodly”-that is the mildest description of the lost man in the Bible. By definition a man is either married or unmarried, he is either happy or unhappy, he is either thankful or unthankful, he is either godly or ungodly. Everything about the ungodly man in this psalm sets him in complete contrast with the godly man. The ungodly man is driven, doomed, and damned.
*The Exclusions*
*The Distinctiveness*
*The Promise*
- He Is Determined (l:4)
4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
CHAFF
The fine, dry material, such as husks (seed coverings) and other debris, which is separated from the seed in the process of threshing grain.
In the Bible, chaff symbolizes worthless, evil, or wicked persons (or things) that are about to be destroyed (Ps 1:4; Matt 3:12; Luke 3:17).
It is a fitting figure of speech to describe complete destruction by judgment.
“The ungodly,” said the psalmist, “are like the chaff which the wind drives away (Ps 1:4).
(from Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright (c)1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)
Having described the godly man, the Holy Spirit, with studied and deliberate contrast, introduces the ungodly man: “The ungodly are not so.”
In the Septuagint version there is a much more pungent way of expressing the double negative of this verse:
“Not so the ungodly, not so.
In contrast with the towering tree, with its roots deep in the soil, nourished by a permanent stream, the ungodly is likened to the chaff which the wind driveth away.
The unsaved man is at the mercy of forces he does not see what he cannot control. Here is a ship, its engines broken, its steering out of order, caught in the grip of a wind. It is being driven by wind and tide toward the jagged rocks that guard the coast. Gripped by forces beyond its control it is being driven straight to disaster.
Such are the forces at work in the life of the ungodly. They are satanic forces, wielded by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
The unsaved man doesn’t believe in Satan or in evil spirits. His education has taught him to believe only in what he can test with his senses, but these are invisible forces and the pressure they exert is secret pressure.
The ungodly man is not the master of his own soul. the captain of his own destiny. He is being relentlessly driven. He is as powerless against these forces as the chaff is before the wind. That is how God describes the ungodly.
- He Is Determined or Driven (l:4)
- He Is Doomed (l:5)
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
The sinner has no standing on the day of judgment. He will be summoned to the great white throne there to find the heaven and the earth have fled away.
Everything familiar will be gone. Everything he has sought to build, everything in which he has invested his time and his talents-gone!
He has nowhere to stand. He has built his house upon the sand and the judgment has swept it all away.
- He Is Driven (l:4)
- He Is Doomed (l:5)
- He Is Damned (1:6)
6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
“For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”
There are only two ways. There is the way of the cross, the way that leads by Calvary to glory.
And there is the way of the curse, the broad and popular way that leads to a lost eternity.
Jesus said in John 14:6
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man come to the Father, but by me.
By nature, and by practice our feet are set on the broad way.
“We have turned every one to his own way,” the prophet declares.
But, by deliberate choice, we can make the change. We come to Jesus, “the way, the truth, the life,” the One who says, “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.
We take Him as Savior and become numbered with the godly We are no longer driven but directed. The lost man, on the other hand, can no more fight his end than the chaff can fight the wind. “The way of the ungodly shall perish.” That is the Holy Spirit’s sobering, closing word in this first great Hebrew hymn.
The central lesson in Psalm 1 is this: There is not the slightest similarity between the spiritually accelerating life of the righteous and the slowly eroding life of the wicked. Look at the contrasts:
Godly Ungodly
Godly Happiness many times over Ungodly Not so!
Godly Uncompromised. purity Ungodly Driven by the wind
Godly Has a guide-Word of God Ungodly No guide mentioned
Godly Like a tree Ungodly Like chaff
Godly Stands upright before God Ungodly Unable to stand at all
Godly Special object of God’s care Ungodly No right to stand, among the righteous assembly
Godly Destiny secure, safe, prosperous Ungodly Perish
Let’s bring this study of Psalm 1 to a close with an expanded paraphrase:
Oh, the happiness, many times over, of the man who does not temporarily or even casually imitate the plan of life of those living in the activity of sinful confusion, nor comes and takes his stand in the midst of those who miss the mark spiritually, nor settles down and dwells in the habitation of the blasphemous crowd. But (in contrast to that kind of lifestyle) in God’s Word he takes great pleasure, thinking upon it and pondering it every waking moment, day or night. The result: He will become treelike-firm, fruitful, unwithered, and fulfilling the goals in life that God has designed for him.
Not so, the ungodly! They are like worthless husks beaten about and battered by the winds of life (drifting and roaming without purpose). Therefore-on account of their inner worthlessness without the Lord-the ungodly are not able to stand erect on the day of judgment, nor do they possess any right to be numbered among the assembly of those declared righteous by God, because the Lord is inclined toward and bound to His righteous ones by special love and care; but the way of the one without the Lord will lead only to eternal ruin.
